Reflecting on a Post-ATI World
Gave up on AOMEI for the above reason. I'm trialling Macrium Reflect. That looks great!
Acronis totally removed from my PC now.
I've been using ATI since 2012. I'm not super tech savvy, just a guy with a ton of media files. All I need is a simple and reliable backup with incrementals. I'm on Windows 10 Home.
Over the years I've had many problems with ATI. Often I had to delete all backups and start over. Sometimes I had to uninstall and reinstall the program. Either way, I always had to check on it and would often find it wasn't doing what it was scheduled to do. I got to know the settings well and none of these failures or glitches were due to anything I was doing. It got bloated.
After they switched to a yearly fee (and after my latest ATI crash), I decided to look elsewhere. I want an easy GUI and I greatly prefer something that allows you to easily view your individual backed up files in File Explorer. I wanted to start with something free (or free trial) to get a feel for it. I narrowed it down to these:
AOMEI Backupper: Probably would have gone with this but from what I read, it required a number of steps (something about virtual mounting) to view the backed up files. I want to open the files quickly and easily in file explorer so this was the deal breaker for me. I once paid for their PRO version (for the sync features) but their sync did not handle versioning well, so they refunded me.
EASEUS Todo Backup: I ended up trying this. Similar UI to Acronis, easy to use. Contents open in Explorer. I'm told it's nagware, but I can deal with that. I set up and ran my first backup last night and it seemed as fast as Acronis and worked flawlessly. So far, so good.
Paragon: I've read a lot of great things about it and will keep it on the back burner.
Macrium: More advanced users seem to prefer this, so will also keep on the backburner.
P.S. As a secondary "backup" (and since I tend to run my incremental backups weekly) I also wanted a SYNC software on a separate drive that executes upon any changes to the original files. As mentioned, AOMEI Pro sync did not handle versioning. I stumbled across an obscure program called Synchredible and once I figured out how to set it up, it's working well for my needs. It is very aggressive nagware but I just shove the popup off my screen. If it continues to work well, I will upgrade to pro.
It's probably overkill to have both, but I have a lot of files and don't want to lose any of them.
musicmafia wrote:I've been using ATI since 2012. I'm not super tech savvy, just a guy with a ton of media files. All I need is a simple and reliable backup with incrementals. I'm on Windows 10 Home.
Over the years I've had many problems with ATI. Often I had to delete all backups and start over. Sometimes I had to uninstall and reinstall the program. Either way, I always had to check on it and would often find it wasn't doing what it was scheduled to do. I got to know the settings well and none of these failures or glitches were due to anything I was doing. It got bloated.
After they switched to a yearly fee (and after my latest ATI crash), I decided to look elsewhere. I want an easy GUI and I greatly prefer something that allows you to easily view your individual backed up files in File Explorer. I wanted to start with something free (or free trial) to get a feel for it. I narrowed it down to these:
AOMEI Backupper: Probably would have gone with this but from what I read, it required a number of steps (something about virtual mounting) to view the backed up files. I want to open the files quickly and easily in file explorer so this was the deal breaker for me. I once paid for their PRO version (for the sync features) but their sync did not handle versioning well, so they refunded me.
EASEUS Todo Backup: I ended up trying this. Similar UI to Acronis, easy to use. Contents open in Explorer. I'm told it's nagware, but I can deal with that. I set up and ran my first backup last night and it seemed as fast as Acronis and worked flawlessly. So far, so good.
Paragon: I've read a lot of great things about it and will keep it on the back burner.
Macrium: More advanced users seem to prefer this, so will also keep on the backburner.
P.S. As a secondary "backup" (and since I tend to run my incremental backups weekly) I also wanted a SYNC software on a separate drive that executes upon any changes to the original files. As mentioned, AOMEI Pro sync did not handle versioning. I stumbled across an obscure program called Synchredible and once I figured out how to set it up, it's working well for my needs. It is very aggressive nagware but I just shove the popup off my screen. If it continues to work well, I will upgrade to pro.
It's probably overkill to have both, but I have a lot of files and don't want to lose any of them.
The virtual mounting thing is really no big deal, It's the same with Macrium Reflect Free, it just allows you to view the backup as a drive letter in windows explorer, ATI did this as well but the process was hidden. Basically you double click the file and it opens as a drive letter. not complicated at all.
Also what I like about Macrium Reflect Free is that you can actually run an OS backup as a Virtual Machine.
Basically access the backed up operating system without restoring it to a drive. Has everything I need with no cost. I have made several backups, and restored several backups now, and I have used the VM to deactivate some software I forgot to do before reformatting/installing a fresh copy of windows.
I have been keeping 2 drives of data, and 2 drives of backups, so 4 copies of my data as a precaution, but Macrium has been solid so far.
Hello everyone,
Apologies for the late response on this thread. JK, thank you for starting this conversation, as we get to hear from our users firsthand about their pain points.
Now to address some of the issues most talked about:
Decision to move from Perpetual to Subscription licenses:
We are aware that, at first glance, subscription sounds overwhelming especially for a product that has been providing perpetual license for years.
However, as a subscriber, the user is eligible for free product upgrades. An upgraded version of the product can be installed at any time during the subscription period. Upgrades are important because every year Acronis pours in immense efforts to address the needs of our users. We introduce new features, fix gaps in our solutions, and improve our technology to keep our solution best-of-breed. Over the years, many of our users, including some of you on this forum have chosen to periodically buy upgraded versions of Acronis True Image. Subscription is an effort towards making these upgrades easily and promptly available to our users.
Inclusion of anti-malware solution in Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office
To start with, please rest assured that backup remains an integral and core component of Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office. Inclusion of anti-malware solution will in no way compromise our backup features or their quality. We are constantly working to improve our backup component.
Having said that, our anti-malware solution ensures safety of both the source device and its backed-up data—leaving no gaps in the defense. For example, historically, the simplest defense against ransomware was to create a backup. If you get attacked, you merely recover your system from a backup made before you got infected. But what happens when the copy of the data has been encrypted or infected by malware? Traditional backup solutions are unable to detect and prevent data corruption from modern malware. Once your original data gets infected, it can be days—or even weeks—before you realize that the data you’ve been backing up has been compromised.
Through Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office ecosystem we intend to integrate data protection (backup) with cybersecurity (anti-malware/antivirus) in a single solution and provide all-round defense to our users.
Background services
Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office runs several background services to keep your data protected at all times. As you may know, the number of active services is not always indicative of the amount of system resources being used up.
Our R&D team is constantly working on improving performance and reducing load on CPU. Here are some backup options to look out for that effect performance:
- Compression: Highly compressed backup occupies less space on disk, but it can result in lower performance as some effort is required to compress the backup files. Recommended value: “Normal”.
- Priority: Setting a low priority for backups would mean lower resource usage but longer time to complete backup operation. Recommended value: “Low”.
- Transfer rate: When you back up data to Acronis Cloud, you can set up limit for data upload. Lower limit would mean longer time needed to complete a backup. Recommended value: Need to check
Here is explanation for some of our services:
- Acronis Active Protection Service: This is the core service for Active Protect, which is our technology to detect Ransomware activities and prevent them in real time.
- Acronis Agent Core: This is a service that manages local services. It helps other Acronis processes to communicate with each other.
- Acronis Scheduler: This is the service that makes it possible to schedule various tasks like backups and scans.
- Acronis Task Manager: this service helps in tracking and managing operations like backup, antivirus scans, vulnerability scans, and so on.
- Acronis Alert Manager Service: This is a service that manages alerts coming from anti-malware solutions.
- Acronis Cyber Protect Service: This service is the central part of anti-malware (anti-virus) solution.
Support on Acronis Forum
The Acronis forum is a platform where our users can interact with each other and work on community effort. Acronis moderates the forum rather than answering all questions posted here. We are very grateful to our active users for extending help to other users and appreciate the constructive feedback. We trust that our experienced users will post reliable and responsible articles on the forum.
However, if you are looking for certified Acronis Technical Support, please submit a case at http://www.acronis.com/support/ by clicking on “Contact Support”.
-Arpita
I've no doubt your software, and quality is great. I believe that. That's why I used, and recommended it for so many years, But if it's so great, why do you have to force it. If it's great people will pay. I no longer recommend or use Acronis products. That should speak volumes.
I will not support subscription services for software, or products, ever.
Cloud/Server monthly fee, yes depends. I guess this is no longer a software application, but rather a service like hosting. That's just not for me. Sorry. I did however pay for licenses when I saw fit. I believe that was enough.
The thing I hate most about subscriptions is.
You never know what your financial status will be in the future. You don't pay your monthly fee, you are out.
Perpetual license will allow you to use that existing version for all eternity if you so choose.
Call it what you want, Subscription is a prison in my opinion.
Subscription as on option is good. But you have only 1 option, Pay Monthly or Die.
Some of us do not want/need all the options in the (Only Option) subscription.
Which is why people are leaving, and spreading the word to millions of other people.
Especially in this critical time upon a Recession maybe soon to be a depression people do not want more monthly bills, I have more monthly now then ever had in the 50 years I've been alive.
Rest assured I have seen many things come and go, and the talk of subscription is getting more negative everyday.
It will end, it would be smart to have a perpetual (Basic) (Lite) versions of your software.
The Western Digital free OEM versions are very outdated so why keep them going? To advertise the subscription fee. It's getting out of had. I wish I could build things and keep getting payments every month long after I built them.
Just need some basic, no cloud, no server, I don't even want the mobile phone backup stuff.
At this point it does not even matter to me anymore, I have moved on to greener pastures.
The future of subscriptions is very gloomy. So is the internet at this point.
Just my opinion, and millions of others, just google it, if google has not deleted it from their algorithm.
"subscription services are getting out of hand"
As a typical sales and marketing person, Arpita Ghosh just rattled off some PR BS and actually did a little lying.
She rattles off a list of 6 services which run, yet when I had it installed and it was giving me major problems the following services were running:
- Acronis Active Protection Service
- Acronis Agent Core
- Acronis Alert Manager Service
- Acronis Cyber Protect Agent
- Acronis Cyber Protect Agent
- Acronis Cyber Protect Service
- Acronis Scheduler Manager
- Acronis Task Manager
- Acronis TIB Mounter Monitor
- Acronis TIB Mounter Service
- Acronis Updater
- Acronis VSS COM server executable (this is what the Acronis updater messed up causing me problems)
- AcronisProductUpdateUtility
How do you explain all the other ones you didn't mention?
Integrating ransomware protection is fine so long as we can choose it or not. Forcing it on us at the cost of system performance is horrible. Besides, most people already have anti virus and malware protection. What are we supposed to do, uninstall software which we already payed for? Also, I don't need cloud backup. Why on earth would I want to keep my data on someone else's computer given all the hacks into cloud storage systems in which user data has been compromised.
Finally, subscription services are nothing more than a way to to keep collecting money for something someone has already purchased. I will never pay a subscription service as the cost ends up being vastly more depending on how long you usually went between upgrades. I could use the same version of Acronis for 4 or 5 years with no problem and then decide for myself whether or not to upgrade based on new features or speed increases. Now we are forced to pay every year making the software 4 to 5 times more expensive, yet it isn't 4 or 5 times quicker or better. No thanks! Especially when there are so many other options available.
Acronis aren't the only ones that tried milking more money from the user by going to a subscription model. Quicken, Microsoft Office, and Adobe all did the same thing and I have cancelled them all and found perfectly good replacements that can do everything the others did.
Oh, and your support sucks! When I was having major problems the only thing they told me was to uninstall and reinstall.
Shame on you for trying to extort more money from your customers.
With all due respect, your post in this forum thread is off-topic. This thread is for users who are exploring alternatives to ATI. If you want to make a sales pitch for ACPHO, there are more relevant threads in the ACPHO forum where you can attempt to make a case -- for example, here are two recent threads with high volume:
Has the Standard (Perpetual License) Option Been Removed?
How to Disable ALL Acronis Anti-Virus Services
For users who have reached this thread (Reflecting on a Post-ATI World), the horse has already left the barn. We are users who categorically do not want to purchase disk imaging/backup software on a subscription-only license model, and who have a need for a disk imaging/backup solution that does not force bundling of malware protection services.
Furthermore, as evidenced by recent marketing messages (including yours) Acronis appears to believe that our dissatisfaction is simply a result of being "perplexed" (Acronis email campaign, March 2021) or "overwhelmed" (Acronis social media campaign, May, 2022), and that we therefore can be won over if you only provide sufficient explanation for the changes made to your product in recent years. This misconception on Acronis' part represents a failure to understand your (former) user base, and frankly, comes across as condescending.
To put it simply: The users for whom this thread was created will not be returning to Acronis unless you release a version of ATI that can be purchased under a perpetual license (i.e., no subscription) and that allows complete removal or disabling of all services and components not required for disk imaging and backup (i.e., no bundled anti-malware software). Unless you are returning to this thread to announce that such a product is being released, we would appreciate if you could refrain from spamming this thread with irrelevant marketing messages.
Appreciate your response albeit very late and essentially a "follow the company line" answer.
However you seem to have missed the original point of the thread. Customers already loved the backup product and I would also imagine that many if not all want the protection of the backups from being changed by malware. That is a great feature. What we don't want is for your product to protect the entire device.
When you have another product which you are very happy with for protection you simply cannot use Acronis backup. The ask was simple.... just seperate the products. Acronis backup with backup protection or Acronis backup with full device protection. Then we can make our choice.
I personally have no problem with Subscription but i know many do which is fair enough. Like it or loathe it, it is the new business model for most software.
I can only imagine you must have lost a lot of customers over all of this. For me it was also the fact that Acronis had/have no interest in customers opinions. The protection issue was raised a long time before this thread.
Like many others, I am unlikely to purchase an Acronis subscription license with cyber protection services. I've been happy with the ATI versions since ATI 11. I was looking into Macrium Reflect today and noticed that the Free version does not support 'Bare metal restore to dissimilar hardware with ReDeploy'. When my Win10 PCs need to be replaced, I want to avoid reinstalling all the apps and lose other Win10 settings. Are there other ways to restore apps to a new PC?
Peter Keegan wrote:I was looking into Macrium Reflect today and noticed that the Free version does not support 'Bare metal restore to dissimilar hardware with ReDeploy'. When my Win10 PCs need to be replaced, I want to avoid reinstalling all the apps and lose other Win10 settings. Are there other ways to restore apps to a new PC?
The obvious solution is to use a Macrium Reflect with a paid (perpetual!) license.
Beyond that, unless you are planning to replace your Win10 PCs in the near future, you may consider just biting the bullet and doing a clean install of your apps. Depending on how far into the future you will be upgrading your hardware, you may run into a situation where Windows 10 compatible drivers are not even available for some of the devices in the new PC. Bare metal restore is primarily intended for recovering from catastrophic failures; when upgrading to a new PC, doing a fresh install of everything is an opportunity to "clean house", so that may be a better approach, even though it can be a pain!
@Arpita Ghosh:
This thread has been up for over a year. AFAIK, your post is the first time someone of Acronis has graced this thread with a comment.
Nothing illustrates better the utter disregard Acronis has for its customers.
Peter Keegan wrote:
Like many others, I am unlikely to purchase an Acronis subscription license with cyber protection services. I've been happy with the ATI versions since ATI 11. I was looking into Macrium Reflect today and noticed that the Free version does not support 'Bare metal restore to dissimilar hardware with ReDeploy'. When my Win10 PCs need to be replaced, I want to avoid reinstalling all the apps and lose other Win10 settings. Are there other ways to restore apps to a new PC?
Peter Keegan,
There is a product called "Fast Move" from webminds.com that may do what you want. I've never used it, so I cannot provide any info as to how well it works.
Steve Smith wrote:J K, I have played with a few different products over time including MiniTool ShadowMaker, Ashampoo Backup, EaseUs ToDo, AOMEI Backupper as well as using Macrium Reflect Free.
Of these, Macrium Reflect has been my main alternative for a few years with their Free version (limited to Full and Differential options) but their Easter offer convinced me to buy a 4-PC perpetual license that includes a free upgrade to their new version 8.0 when it is released.
Ashampoo Backup works fine but creates far too many files per backup for my liking!
EaseUs ToDo and AOMEI Backupper have their own quirks and will suit users who like those!Macrium for me is the best alternative to what ATI used to be before all the added angst of having Cyber Protection and now loss of perpetual licenses! They give access to Logs within the main GUI, have simple, easy options for using batch, Powershell or VBS scripts if wanted, plus have a very small footprint in terms of disk and memory / cpu usage.
My Acronis ProgramData folder is nearly 800MB in size compared to under 13MB for MR.
ATI 2021 has a bucket full of background services & processes. MR has one service and no processes active unless performing a backup etc. MR has the Macrium Image Guardian to protect only files used by Macrium without going for world domination in Cyber security!EDIT: Correction to my comment above about MR. It does have 3 processes active along with just 1 service when inactive. The 3 processes are all 64-bit which is why I missed them previously! EDIT:
On a performance comparison doing a Full then Incremental backup to a second internal SATA HDD for the same source disk drive (Samsung NVMe M.2 970 EVO Plus)
ATI Full - 31 to 45 minutes Incremental - between 6 to 12 minutes.
MR Full - 12 to 18 minutes Incremental - between 6 to 12 minutes.
Steve,
sto leggendo con molto interesse i post su ATI World.
Trovo anch’io che la nuova politica Acronis sia letteralmente sbagliata !
mettere insieme Backup e Cybersecurity solo per motivi di Business è sbagliato. Così come è sbagliato avere introdotto il sistema di Abo.
Il supporto di Acronis è diventato un servizio da evitare!
Mi dispiace moltissimo perché io utilizzo ATI dalla versione 2009 ma invece di migliorare è peggiorato!
Sto valutando seriamente di cambiare,
Ashampoo, Aomei e EaseUS non fanno per me. Vedo di provare MR.
Grazie per i Feedback!
Steve,
sto leggendo con molto interesse i post su ATI World.
Trovo anch’io che la nuova politica Acronis sia letteralmente sbagliata !
mettere insieme Backup e Cybersecurity solo per motivi di Business è sbagliato. Così come è sbagliato avere introdotto il sistema di Abo.
Il supporto di Acronis è diventato un servizio da evitare! Attese di settimane e magari risposte sbagliate 😑
Mi dispiace moltissimo perché io utilizzo ATI dalla versione 2009 ma invece di migliorare è peggiorato! Molto spesso litiga con i nuovi hardware!
Sto valutando seriamente di cambiare,
Ashampoo, Aomei e EaseUS non fanno per me. Vedo di provare MR.
Grazie per i Feedback tutto il forum:-)
An attempt to translate the above post by Caldarella Salvatore (Google Translate with minor edits):
I am reading the posts on the post-ATI World with great interest.
I, too, think that the new Acronis policy is literally wrong!
Putting together Backup and Cybersecurity just for Business reasons is wrong. Just as it is wrong to have introduced the subscription system.
Acronis Support has become a service to be avoided! Waited for weeks, and even received wrong answers 😑
I am very sorry because I have been using ATI since the 2009 version, but instead of improving it has gotten worse! Quite often it conflicts with new hardware!
I am seriously considering changing, but Ashampoo, Aomei and EaseUS are not for me. I look forward to trying MR.
Thanks for the Feedback all over the forum :-)
I'm one of the many who don't like to pay for subscription software. In this case, because I don't really want any of the subscription services -- I simply want a backup software that works reliably and fits my needs. But what got me really was that the way ATI now stores incremental partition images (.tibx files) really does not fit my needs.
In a nutshell, I want full disk images with incremental backups that are stored as separate files, being able to exclude a part of the files from the backups (mainly local OneDrive files).
I haven't yet found any other solution that supports this properly. Macrium provides a work-around, but say that it is not reliable and that "unless you are removing many thousands of files then there shouldn't be a problem". In some of my cases, there are many local OneDrive files, so I'm not so happy with this.
Has anybody seen another product that does incremental disk backups but allows path-based exclusions?
Gerhard,
The limitation of the registry edit workaround is not a limitation that is inherent (or limited) to Macrium Reflect, but rather is a limitation of the Windows Shadow Copy service (VSS), which is what allows an actively used partition to be imaged in a consistent state.
I see two possible work-arounds for you:
1. Do image backups only to capture changes to the operating system and installed software, and set up a "file & folder" backup job to capture your data files. With a "file & folder" backup, you have robust, fine-grained control over what gets included or excluded.
2. Create a separate partition (e.g., a D: drive) to hold all of your data files. It is even possible to configure Windows Explorer so that your "Documents" and "Desktop" folders etc. will reside on D: instead of C:. In this case, you can use two disk imaging jobs to separately back up the C: and D: partitions, and you can do frequent incremental images of D: without having to worry about the OneDrive folder (which resides on the C: partition).
Just a couple of comments relative to the last couple of posts.
Definitely agree with separating the OS & installed applications from user data which is something that I have been doing for many years. The key benefits are in using different backup schedules according to the frequency of change happening, plus for simplifying future recovery, as well as for making for smaller backup images.
I have always moved such as OneDrive, Dropbox etc away from my OS partition, along with relocating the standard 'libraries' for Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos - in my current main system, these are all on a second disk drive but could be on a second partition in a one disk system.
Using a Disks & Partitions backup for the OS drive / partitions is essential due to all the volume of locked system data involved.
For the Data drive / partition(s), then there is an opportunity to use both backup types, i.e. to do a regular full disk backup, plus to have a more frequent Files & Folders backup too.
The number & variety of backup tasks is only limited by the available storage to be used to hold the images.
Note: some data is not best suited for backing up with Acronis or other similar applications, i.e. I use a folder synchronisation program for backing up (by which I mean copying 'as is') all my various Hyper-V and VMware virtual machines I use for testing! This is very much faster to use than doing an ATI backup, and I have different copy tasks configured if I want to undo any changes to the VM by reversing the copy direction. This approach could also apply to other data types such as music, videos, games etc, especially if the files are already highly compressed in their native state.
J K, Steve, I agree with most of what both of you said, but having a disk backup that allows me to (reliably) exclude certain paths just does it for me, with minimal configuration effort.
The limitation of the registry edit workaround is not a limitation that is inherent (or limited) to Macrium Reflect, but rather is a limitation of the Windows Shadow Copy service (VSS), which is what allows an actively used partition to be imaged in a consistent state.
AIUI, the limitation of the registry method to exclude files only applies to backup programs that require the user to use this method. There are other methods that a backup program can use to exclude files that don't share the limitations of the registry method -- most notably the fact that the registry method promises only a "best effort" result, whereas the other methods are guaranteed. My assumption is that e.g. ATI doesn't use the registry method, but rather excludes the configured paths using one of the more reliable methods.
See also the top sections of docs<dot>microsoft<dot>com/en-us/windows/win32/vss/excluding-files-from-shadow-copies (down to and including the pink "Note" box).
(Really -- I'm not allowed to post an MSDN link here??)
some data is not best suited for backing up with Acronis or other similar applications
Agreed. I have a separate backup process for OneDrive data. I think I get most of what I need by moving OneDrive (and the related Windows special folders like Music, Pictures) onto a separate partition, but again -- being able to exclude them just gives me what I want without further system configurations.
It's been a while since I worked with ATI now, but my recollection is that you can set an option that determines whether disk images use the Microsoft Windows VSS service or a proprietary Acronis snapshot service. If the Windows VSS is used, I don't see how it would be possible to exclude specific files/folders without relying on the VSS Optimization Writer, which necessitates the registry edit (and has a limit to the number of files that can be excluded). Perhaps a more robust implementation is possible using the Acronis snapshot service.
Gerhard Fiedler wrote:....
(Really -- I'm not allowed to post an MSDN link here??)
I can post whatever link I want - may be an MVP benefit. Restrictions on imbedded links is user protection measure, precluding evil agents placing links to malicious web sites. Some forum I use place similar restrictions, one I run requires moderation of post with links for new users, and users who have not been registered for a specified time or made a specified number of posts.
I suspect the inability to include links in first post in a thread is directed to minimising the same problem. You can, however, edit the post subsequently to include a link (if I recall correctly).
Ian
If the Windows VSS is used, I don't see how it would be possible to exclude specific files/folders without relying on the VSS Optimization Writer, which necessitates the registry edit (and has a limit to the number of files that can be excluded).
That's why I added the address of an MSDN page (just not as a link -- sorry, not allowed) where it explains that the registry method is a "best effort" implementation (that is, not guaranteed), whereas calling CVssWriter::OnPostSnapshot is guaranteed (but must be done in code and can't be "added" by the user).
Here is it again: docs<dot>microsoft<dot>com/en-us/windows/win32/vss/excluding-files-from-shadow-copies
Applications can call OnPostSnapshot and with that provide a reliable means to exclude files from a snapshot. When applications don't do that, the user still can use the registry method, but only on a "best effort" basis.
You can, however, edit the post subsequently to include a link (if I recall correctly).
Just tried editing -- still prohibited. Probably a noob restriction.
calling CVssWriter::OnPostSnapshot is guaranteed (but must be done in code and can't be "added" by the user).
Interesting. Do you have any knowledge of whether Acronis uses this method?
If you have a paid license to Macrium Reflect, I would encourage you to make this feature request in the Wish List thread on the support forum.
IanL-S - Personally, I am still unable to embed URL links in my forum posts, unless they link to pages on the acronis.com domain...
I just tired an external link, and I can past them. However, this may be an MVP specific ability. I will ask the Forum Moderator (Ekaterina) to provide details of the policy.
Ian
What was the last good version, without all the bloat, that worked on Windows 10? I have them down to version 15.
Do you have any knowledge of whether Acronis uses this method?
No, I don't. But any app developer looking at that page should choose this method. What I do know is that the paths that I added to the excluded files list (and that are excluded from backups) don't show up in that registry key. To me, this almost certainly means that ATI uses the OnPostSnapshot method.
If you have a paid license to Macrium Reflect
No. For now, Steve's .tib workaround gave me a bit more time to search for a replacement.
What I do know is that the paths that I added to the excluded files list (and that are excluded from backups) don't show up in that registry key.
And you are for sure using the Microsoft Windows VSS, and not the proprietary Acronis snapshot service?
If you have any references discussing the advantage of the OnPostSnapshot method, other than the MSDN page, would you mind sharing? I would like to bring this up on the Macrium forum, but the subject is a bit outside my expertise, so additional references would be helpful.
Just a quick note here on this latest discussion. Acronis have never published any information on the inner workings of ATI or any other of their applications, however, they obviously recognise and obey the exclusions set via the registry key as evidenced by KB 48032: Acronis software: *.OST-file is not backed up
Microsoft also have another associated registry key 'FilesNotToBackup' as described in MSDN document: Registry Keys and Values for Backup and Restore but this has limitations as described in the document for when Volume level backups are involved.
And you are for sure using the Microsoft Windows VSS, and not the proprietary Acronis snapshot service?
Yes. In the backup options > Advanced > Performance > Snapshot for backup, I see the 4 options No snapshot, VSS, Acronis snapshot, VSS without writers. I have selected VSS.
If you have any references discussing the advantage of the OnPostSnapshot method, other than the MSDN page, would you mind sharing?
Not really. Here is the relevant section:
Using the AddExcludeFilesFromSnapshot Method
A VSS writer can exclude files from a shadow copy as follows:
- Call the IVssCreateWriterMetadataEx::AddExcludeFilesFromSnapshot method to report the files to be excluded.
- In the writer's CVssWriter::OnPostSnapshot method, delete the files from the shadow copy.
This is the standard way of excluding files from a snapshot. It must be done by the application, and it is not a limited "best effort" approach.
The section that describes the registry key method starts like this, listing a number of limitations of this method:
Using the FilesNotToSnapshot Registry Key
Note
The FilesNotToSnapshot registry key is intended to be used only by applications. Users who attempt to use it will encounter limitations such as the following:
- It cannot delete files from a shadow copy that was created on a Windows Server by using the Previous Versions feature.
- It cannot delete files from shadow copies for shared folders.
- It can delete files from a shadow copy that was created by using the DiskShadow utility, but it cannot delete files from a shadow copy that was created by using the Vssadmin utility.
- Files are deleted from a shadow copy on a best-effort basis. This means that they are not guaranteed to be deleted.
The page also mentions this:
If the VSS_VOLSNAP_ATTR_NO_AUTORECOVERY flag is set in the shadow copy context, this means that auto-recovery is disabled, and no files can be excluded from the shadow copy. For more information, see the _VSS_VOLUME_SNAPSHOT_ATTRIBUTES enumeration.
This is also something that's under control of the application and limits what a user can do outside of the application.
(All links de-linked. You can get them from the Microsoft page.)
Hi, I have been trying to understand the issue you are facing with exclusions. Acronis offers excluding files from any type of backup by using file paths and masks. It should be able to exclude OneDrive data as well.
Is this feature not working correctly. Could you please help me understand what is the behavior you see versus what is expected?
AFAICT, there is no problem with exclusions in Acronis. This thread is about alternatives to ATI (see the title "Reflecting on a Post-ATI World"), and some otherwise good alternatives don't provide exclusions with disk/partition backups. If you read the whole thread, this should become clear. Also why we are looking for alternatives.
Steve: Thanks for the info.
Gerhard:
This is the standard way of excluding files from a snapshot. It must be done by the application, and it is not a limited "best effort" approach.
My understanding is that the method you are advocating for would be employed by a VSS writer for an application/service that has an open file (e.g., Microsoft Exchange has an Exchange VSS Writer). Some of these are not successful, if they time out (i.e., if their work is not complete in 60 seconds) -- and this is the same reason why the VSS Optimization Writer (which implements the exclusions contained in the registry) may also fail. In any case, your proposition is interesting: the backup software (which is the VSS requestor) would also provide a VSS writer for files that it normally doesn't open or save.
Having been a loyal Acronis customer since 2010 (10.0), I will not be renewing my license. I say loyal because it wasn't always easy to stick with it in the early days since the UI and configuration were quite buggy (don't dare modify a config). Took years to get solid[-ish]. I kept using it because the backup--and more importantly, the restore--worked. Although, tbh, Acronis in one of the slowest I've worked with.
That said, I'm in the storage product development industry and I've used many commercial and open source backup solutions in my time. They ALL work. My loyalty to Acronis has always been irrational and I've always known that. I have several subscriptions that make sense to be subscriptions (Jetbrains since there's a fallback perpetual, Office 365, Malwarebytes). I don't believe an imaging product belongs in a subscription model, at least at that price.
So, I'll be using Macrium. I've used it before and it works great. Plus it's actually faster than ATI. My loyal bi-yearly 3-seat update is no more.
UPDATE 22/10/02: Well, I spoke too soon. I said above that I stuck with ATI because it just "worked". Turns out that I have been affected by the bizarre reality (and surprisingly poor engineering) that tibx files are not actually recognized by the Recovery media. I recently switched to tibx after restarting a backup chain in my 2020 license. I created tibx image backups, but I can't do tibx image restores. I read I would have to upgrade to get that capability. Decision to dump ATI affirmed.
I had left this forum behind along with ATI due to the license pricing, but since I was tagged in another thread, I figured I'd have a look and could share my own approach.
The plan for an ATI upgrade was to run the backup client locally and store to a NAS. But since giving up on ATI for licensing reasons and a few other solutions for technical reasons, I decided to move my personal files to a home share on the NAS and then use Windows File History to back up any remaining local data to the NAS. While it's limited to only certain predefined areas, it works much better than I expected.
I thought I needed a disk image of the C drive, but after thinking it over, I decided I don't actually need it after all.
To have data available locally, I'm using Nextcloud set up at home with clients on my laptop, workstation phone, etc., which synchronises files I like to have available and that it's not practical to only keep on the NAS home share.
But having read this thread, I might give Macrium a go.
It's a weird situation to put oneself in as a company where customers, after 13 years, start looking deeper into their situation only to find out they're actually just as well off without even choosing a replacement for their product.
Dear Tomas Fjetland,
Thank you for the feedback and being with Acronis so many years. We are sorry to hear your disappointment. Hopefully we will prove that updates in the software are necessary and for good. And we also hope someday we will satisfy your expectations.
I stumpled about this Threat two months to late.
Had bought ATI 2021 5 PC License in August, just before Support expired (which i did not know).
Wanted to clone a HDD to SSD: took 1hour to read Source Drive. Cost me 4h today, and then i went to a different Solution.
Other time Acronis did not find the HDD at all in the Notebook. Or booting from USB it chrashed with Kernel Panic.
How could Acronis ever released such a buggy Software at all? And the support it for less then 12 Months after releasing it? That even beats Teamviewer.
Just to change names and went to Subscription Sales? Good luck with that.
I will avoid Subscriptionbased Software when ever possible.
Acronis 2021 installs tons of tools, i do not need right now. Have other Ransomeware Protection.
Sad to see such a good Product getting that worse. Was using it for like 15 or 20 years...
Will use something different then now.
Unhappy to waste that money on ATI 2021.
The World for me is without Acronis.
Michael
With looking at some of these comments. It absolutely amazes me that people keep updating True Image with each new version like disk imaging somehow keeps changing each year. Which in reality, you rarely need to update disk imaging software unless there is a feature that tempted you to change to a newer version.
I still use True Image 2014 on Windows 11 (tpm 2.0 / uefi / secure boot) and have used custom (to boot on uefi) True Image 2014 boot media on family members computers for many years (old computers and modern computer) without a single issue with creating or restoring images.
I wont change software until their is a genuine reason to do so than line Acronis's pocket.
Joseph Murphy wrote:With looking at some of these comments. It absolutely amazes me that people keep updating True Image with each new version like disk imaging somehow keeps changing each year. Which in reality, you rarely need to update disk imaging software unless there is a feature that tempted you to change to a newer version.
If all you use your copies of ATI for is straight-up disk imaging, such as to clone a drive or system, then your argument is valid.
However, as I'm sure you're aware, ATI is also a full-featured backup software, doing both image-based and other types of backup types. And backup IS an area that changes because the threats we protect ourselves from, the media we use, and the need for redundancy change. So while old-school imaging might be enough for you, some of us would like access to features that the latest versions contain, just not at any price.
This thread is still going, I quit using ATI like 6 months or so I think, and have not had any issues since. In fact Macrium is much better, and they don't force things you don't want, and it has perpetual license. No need to pay a monthly finance charge for something you don't need. What is this a Car, A House, no?
Hello all,
A question to users that switched to Macrium Reflect. Does this software have something similar to ATI Startup Recovery Manager that allows recovery using F key access at startup?
Thanks
Hello all,
A question to users that switched to Macrium Reflect. Does this software have something similar to ATI Startup Recovery Manager that allows recovery using F key access at startup?
Thanks
Tomasz Chmiel Apologies for the late response -- since switching to Macrium Reflect, I do not frequent these forums much any more.
The answer to your question is yes, there is a "Macrium Rescue Environment", which you can set up as an option in your boot menu, or which you can boot from removable media (e.g., USB drive or optical media).
You can read more about it at the following link (replace "dot" by dots -- the Acronis forum does not allow external links to be posted):
knowledgebase "dot" macrium "dot" com/display/KNOW80/Rescue+Environment
I agree, I have used Macrium and Terabyte Unlimited Image for Windows, they have always been great.
I recently did a restore from Acronis cyber ... and it actually worked an booted, but rearranged my partitions in another order. Very strange.
I used (TI 11) in the past and never had problems. I still can't believe the acronis restore put my partitions in a different order, I restored whole drive.
Could someone help me out. I have reinstalled Acronis 2017 on my pc, saving my backups to an external drive. The drive is filled up and I cannot find how to delete the old backups. In version 2019 they had a clean up, not so with 2017. Thanks.
geo78js@gmail.com wrote:Could someone help me out. I have reinstalled Acronis 2017 on my pc, saving my backups to an external drive. The drive is filled up and I cannot find how to delete the old backups. In version 2019 they had a clean up, not so with 2017. Thanks.
Hello!
Please re-add them following this KB: https://kb.acronis.com/content/60918
After you will be able to delete them.
Best regards.
With Macrium looking to end support / updates for their free version of Reflect soon, I came across Hasleo Backup Suite Free which looks worthy of review by users looking for a free alternative.
From an initial play the software it creates a single proprietary image file using the .DBI file extension for both Disk and Files backups.
Thanks for the link Steve. I like the program. Unless I missed something, the only shortcoming I see is there's no mounting or exploring Disk and partition images.
Hi Paul, agreed, I don't recall seeing any option to mount or explore the Hasleo images but was pleased by the very small footprint at only 27MB for the installer and 107MB installed app. There is no mention of such options in the online user guide either but otherwise it looks to has a good range of features including a command line interface, pre/post commands, email notifications, logs, WinPE media including adding a boot menu option etc.
Hi Steve,
I've been playing with it and found that if you select a backup and chose the Restore option, there is a File Mode tab that lets you explore a full disk backup and select individual files to restore. The same thing works in WinPE as well.
I also found it is very fast when the destination is fast storage. I have a Windows system on a PCIe Gen 4 Samsung 980 Pro and I have a two disk RAID 0 destination that uses Samsung 970 EVO Plus drives. It can do a full system disk backup in just over 2 minutes. Macrium takes 9.5 minutes and Acronis takes 6.5 minutes for the same backup. A full restore to an empty disk took under 2 minutes.